Galaxy on Fire 2 (‘Ultra High-Res’ Edition)

You may have seen Galaxy on Fire 2 before, but you haven’t seen it like this. Game developer Fishlabs is preparing to release an “ultra high-res” edition of its space simulation game for Android Honeycomb tablets withÂ Tegra 2 processors(such as theÂ Acer Iconia A500). The new version makes the iOS equivalent look like child’s play: The graphics quality is four to six times greater, thanks to the added processing power the superspeedy chips provide. As one Nvidia team member put it, the iPad version seems almost “cartoony” in comparison.

Opera Browser for Tablets

Opera takes the honor of being the first third-party browser to offer a tablet-optimized edition for Android with its newÂ Opera Mobile Web Browser, available as of this week in the Android Market. Opera Mobile provides several features not found in the stock Honeycomb browser, including a “speed dial” home page that stores your favorite bookmarks and integrated syncing with any desktop-based Opera browser. The program also has an optional “turbo” mode that forces pages to be compressed remotely on Opera’s servers, leading to smaller data transfers and faster load times.Â Opera Mobile Web Browser is a free download.

Qello

Love live music? Qello–pronounced “kwello”–may be just the app for you. The app’s makers claim to have the largest library of HD concert videos anywhere in the world. Inside the program, you can browse through shows by artists ranging from The Rolling Stones to Eminem. Qello lets you watch 3 minutes of any concert for free; you can then opt to rent the full show for $5 and have unlimited access to it for a month.

Vendetta Online

Massively multiplayer online role playing hits Android in a high-res way withÂ Vendetta Online, available for Tegra 2 Honeycomb tablets right now. In true MMORPG tradition, Vendetta Online lets you create a character to your specifications and then take him or her through a complex journey, interacting with other players in an epic space battle.

The new Honeycomb edition of Vendetta Online connects seamlessly to the PC-playing world, so you can interact with players on tablets and desktop computers alike. You can also move your own game play between a tablet and a PC without missing a beat. Don’t count on playing with your iPad-toting friends, though–Vendetta isn’t available for iOS.

CNBC

Honeycomb tablets will get a business boost in April when CNBC’s new app hits the Android Market. The CNBC Android tablet app puts the financial network’s immense pool of information right at your fingertips, providing real-time stock quotes, headlines from CNBC News, an interactive ticker, and 150 fresh video clips every day. Best of all, it’s completely free.

Don’t think this is just a basic port of the CNBC iPad app, either: The development team says it worked closely with Google to enhance the app and provide added functionality not found in the iOS edition. Among other things, the program will include an interactive widget and Honeycomb-friendly features such as a top-of-display action bar panel.

Riptide GP

Described as an “Xbox 360-class game,” Riptide GP is built to harness all the computing power Tegra 2 tablets have to offer. The game takes you on a racing adventure through rivers, canals, and countless other water-filled tracks. Its water effects are all rendered in real time, resulting inÂ incredibly realistic graphics–all the way down to the reflections of buildings in the streams.

Riptide GP will be available for all Tegra 2 Honeycomb tablets sometime in the next few weeks. Pricing has not yet been announced.

SwiftKey

Android has long had aÂ wide range of input options, from voice command to custom feature-packed keyboards such as SwiftKey and Swype. Voice command is already integrated in Honeycomb–and now, the first keyboard-oriented option is about to become available in a brand new tablet edition.

SwiftKey Tablet is currently in beta testing with a public release on the way soon. The keyboard, like its smartphone-oriented cousin, studies your typing patterns and predicts what you want to say, making typing quicker and more efficient than ever.

The new tablet-optimized edition has a cool-looking blue neon glow that fits right into Honeycomb’s graphical feel. It also has a split-keyboard mode for thumb typing and a numeric-keypad option for easy number entry–something the stock Honeycomb keyboard oddly lacks at the moment.

Social Media PhotoStory

Turning your photos into stories is the lofty goal of Social Media PhotoStory, set to launch next month from app maker Muvee. Social Media PhotoStory continually searches your tablet and your connected social networks–Facebook, Flickr, and so on–to create live, interactive slideshows on your device’s display. The app grabs all relevant data, including comments, likes, and photo locations, and shows it on screen, too. You can even add music to make the slideshow feel like a full-fledged personal movie that plays on your coffee table or wherever you want to take it.

The Social Media PhotoStory app functions in two modes: “reminisce,” which grabs images from old albums all over, or “update,” which focuses only on photos saved within the past week.

Pricing has not yet been announced.

Great Battles Medieval

For history buffs who like to battle, Great Battles Medieval brings the Hundred Years’ War right onto your tablet. The game, originally developed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, will be available for Tegra 2 Honeycomb devices within the next month.

Great Battles Medieval puts you smack in the middle of the battlefield–and considering that it’s a History Channel game, you can bet that the details are all historically accurate. The game lets you select your armies, deliver their orders, and watch them duke it out in fantastic detail. As you progress through different battles, you can upgrade armor and weapons, try different battle and defense skills, and reevaluate your orders to make sure your side wins.

Great Battles Medieval will cost $6.

Google Body

Google Body was one of the first Honeycomb-enhanced apps that the Android team showed off, and as of a few weeks ago, it’sÂ available free of charge in the Android Market. Like theÂ original Web-based version, Google Body acts as an interactive guide to–you guessed it–the human body.

On a tablet, Google Body takes on a whole new dimension. You use your fingers to zoom in and spin through the human form, looking at everything from muscles and bones to organs and nerves. Tapping any piece of anatomy brings up a label describing what you’re seeing. In true Google form, you can also search for any body part and have Google Body jump right to it.